Fig 1.
Flowchart (A) and HCP distribution according to specialty (ED: Emergency Department; ICU: Intensive Care Unit). Surgery encompasses visceral, thoracic, and vascular surgery, neurosurgery, Gynecology, ENT, and orthopedics. RR response rate of participants screened.
Table 1.
Participant’s demographical characteristics.
Fig 2.
Assessment of sepsis knowledge and management skills.
Pie chart representation of responses of participants/respondents according to a five-category Likert scale. Assessment of baseline sepsis knowledge and management skills by either the entire study group (A) or by each category of health care professionals (B). Number of participants/respondents: 619 nurses, 358 physicians, and 149 paramedics.
Fig 3.
Assessment of sepsis characteristics or features (i.e. urgency of care, severity, need for prompt evaluation, and context of appearance) according to a 5-category Likert scale by study participants. Asterisks represent the expected answer.
Table 2.
Specific sepsis training among study participants.
Fig 4.
Sepsis definitions and sepsis scores.
Evaluation of the definition of sepsis (A) and of scores (SOFA, SIRS, qSOFA, MEWS and APACHE II) as a sepsis defining tool (B) or a bedside predictor of sepsis mortality (C). Underlined answers are correct. Abbreviations: MEWS (modified early warning score), APACHE II (acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II).
Fig 5.
Management of a patient with suspected sepsis and a qSOFA of 2 (i.e., respiratory rate of 25 per min and a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13) by paramedics (A), nurses (B), or physicians (C). In panel C, assessment of evaluation tools (step 1) and of management (step 2). Abbreviations: GP (general practitioner), ED (emergency department), EEG (electroencephalogram), IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulins). Underlined answers are expected answers, dotted underlined answers should be considered.
Fig 6.
Notes: Abbreviations: C/I correct/incorrect; OR: Odds ratio; IC 95%: Confidence interval. OR: gray vertical line is 1.0; the heavy black line represents the OR and the light blacklines represent the spread of the confidence interval.